Fossil dunes as proxies for environmental reconstruction. A visit to the aeolianites of Armação de Pêra Bay Algarve. Field Guide. IX Reunião do Quaternário Ibérico

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Abstract(s)

This field guide aims to (i) introduce the dunefield of the Bay of Armação de Pêra located at the south coast of the Algarve, (ii) frame and compare the genesis and evolution of this dune system with other Portuguese coastal dunefields, and (iii) provide information on past sea levels and aeolian activity that encourages a stimulating discussion in the field concerning the dunefields generation and evolution. Dunefields have a great potential to unravel past regimes of atmospheric circulation as they record direct traces of this component of the climate system. In addition, coastal dunes are good proxies of the coastline migration derived from changes in mean sea level. An excellent example of the potential of fossil dunes to reconstruct preterit wind regimes is the case of the west Portuguese coast. Here, transgressive dunefields represent relict features originated by intense and frequent westerly winds, and abundant sediment supplied to the coast that largely contrast with present conditions, clearly dominated by weaker northwesterly winds and sediment starved coasts. At the southern coast, fossil dunes are not as frequent as along the western coast and this field excursion aims to visit, explore and discuss the evolution of one of these systems located at the Armação de Pêra Bay. Yet, it is important to keep in mind that the evolution of this fossil dunefield should be understood in the general context of global changes and within the evolutionary spatial scenario of the Portuguese coast. For that, we present here a brief summary of the spatial and temporal distribution of those relict features along the Portuguese coast emphasizing the examples more intensively explored in the literature, as it is the case of the Caparica dunefield, which might represent a major part of the more important episodes of aeolian activity in the Portuguese coast, responsible for these massive and fossil features.